Lalith Athulathmudali believed that education is the surest way to alleviate poverty. Helping a child to pursue higher education will pave the way for him as well as his family to escape poverty. His vision created the Mahapola Higher Education Scholarship Trust Fund to provide scholarships to the underprivileged youth to pursue their higher education. Up to now nearly 400,000 undergraduates have benefitted from the Mahapola.

His ambition was to provide higher education facilities within Sri Lanka towards which he laid the initial foundation. After his untimely demise, The Sri Lanka Institute for Information Technology was initially established in collaboration with the Mahapola Higher Education Scholarship Trust Fund.

With the sole intention of honouring the visionary, the Lalith Athulathmudali Foundation joined hands with SLIIT to offer scholarships to students pursuing studies at the Institution. Accordingly, fifty-part scholarships will be offered annually to students who qualify to enrol in to degree courses at the SLIIT.

The criteria, application is given here. Selection will be done by SLIIT/LAF and their decision will be final.